One in three U.S. smartphone subscribers use Apple's iPhone

The smartphone market share of Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems grew yet again during the three months ending in July, with the iPhone now accounting for one out of every three handsets while its rival captured 52.2 percent of the market.

According to the latest data from comScore's MobiLens service, Google's Android continued to enjoy the lion's share of the smartphone market, taking 52.2 percent of smartphone subscribers, up 1.4 percent from May, while Apple managed to gain 2 percent to finish with 33.4 percent over the same period. Beleaguered BlackBerry maker RIM continued its decline, dropping 2.1 percent to fall below the 10 percent mark, finishing July with a 9.5 percent share of the market.

Source: comScore

Out of the 234 million Americans age 13 and older who own a mobile device, 25.6 percent use a Samsung product, down 0.3 percentage points from the prior period. Following the Galaxy maker was LG's 18.4 percent share of the market, down a slightly more significant 0.8 points.

Although firmly seated in third place, Apple was the only top-three manufacturer to gain market share during the three month period, gaining 1.9 points to end with a 16.3 percent share of mobile subscribers. Rounding out the top five were Motorola and HTC with 11.2 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

The firm said text messaging was up 1.5 points in July, with over three quarters of subscribers using the service at 75.6 percent. Mobile internet browsing was also up, with 51.2 percent of owners accessing the web, while use of social networking sites grew 1.9 points to reach 37.9 percent. Interestingly, the number of people listening to music on their devices rose 2.5 points to hit 28.3 percent.

When I go out I would swear it is more like 1 out of 2 or better. I rarely see an Android phone anymore.

Went to meeting today and everyone was on an iPhone. It was kind of crazy.

This is hardly a scientific observation, but most of the folks I see with Android phones are kids or people in their early twenties. Most of them have limited incomes as well, so most of them I see have older or less expensive Android phones.

This is hardly a scientific observation, but most of the folks I see with Android phones are kids or people in their early twenties. Most of them have limited incomes as well, so most of them I see have older or less expensive Android phones.

Plenty of iPhone and Android Phones in my area, men with those big screen Android phones while women mostly with iPhones with some pretty cases.

Blackberry and Nokia are dying platforms. Microsoft is taking too long to offer a new stable platform.

Apple and Google offer the only compelling phones on the market with the only secure futures. So of course their market share increase as the dying platforms' customers jump ship. And the Google share is fragmented thanks to the multiple manufacturers, so those numbers will obviously fluctuate based on which company is introducing the hottest new phone in any given quarter.

This is hardly a scientific observation, but most of the folks I see with Android phones are kids or people in their early twenties. Most of them have limited incomes as well, so most of them I see have older or less expensive Android phones.

I've made the same anecdotal observation about the younger generation and Android phones. But working in high tech, these young people aren't income limited, and they aren't buying low-end phones. Rather there is a sense among the younger generation at my employer that there is currently more innovation on the Android side of things. It's an interesting turn of events, but perhaps inevitable given the product churn for Android.

As for the strong showing for Motorola, I'm surprised by that too. But I do see a lot of older Motorola Droids still in service. I don't see much (anything?) in the way of newer Motorola phones. Lots of Samsung phones though.

That's pretty impressive for Apple, given that all the Android phones (even the flagship phones) are offered for $50 or even a penny at Amazon just weeks after they are released. Anyone who says Android didn't gain because of price is deluding themselves.

@philboogie - that seems a little dramatic. They have big challenges, but they also have 80 million users ... that number has gone up ever single quarter since the first iPhone came out. They also have cash that keeps rising, and no debt whatsoever.

Against Apple, they look bad. Against a lot of other companies out there (including in the mobile space), their balance sheet is quite good.